Meet the Team
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Peter Simpson
This year’s test co-ordinator, Peter Simpson, started caravanning in the 1970s. Peter worked for Swift for 12 years before his retirement in 2008, but was persuaded to lead the company’s involvement in the 2009 Towcar Awards. ‘It’s been great to work with such a friendly group of people,’ he says.
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David Motton
David is one of the original members of the test team, and has been a driving judge in all three years. As a former editor of both What Car? and Practical Caravan, he’s uniquely well placed to judge towcars. David still writes regularly for Practical Caravan, testing over 60 different outfits every year.
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Steve Cropley
A new addition to the judging panel for 2009, Steve Cropley is one of the most widely respected motoring journalists in the world. His day job is editor-in-chief of Autocar magazine, but he’s also a juror on the coveted European Car of the Year competition. Oh, and he’s an experience towcar driver, too.
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Pete Tullin
The road test editor of What Car? magazine, Pete Tullin has tested nearly 5000 cars on five continents over his long and distinguished career. Pete is used to taking cars to the limit and beyond, so he’s the obvious choice to take outfits through the violent lane-change manoeuvre, and to carry out acceleration and braking tests.
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Barry Norris
The only person to have been a practicality and driving judge, Barry Norris knows every test procedure inside out. This year, as in 2008, Barry has been a driving judge. For the other 51 weeks of the year, he’s technical information officer for The Camping and Caravanning Club.
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Sue Taylor
Another new judge this year, Sue has towed caravans and trailers for over 10 years. She has been features editor of Camping and Caravanning magazine for more than a decade, and driving a wide variety of towcars goes with the territory.
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Nigel Hutson
One of Practical Caravan’s most active reader-contributors, Nigel has been caravanning all his life. When the Towcar Awards were founded, he was one of the first names to be added to the list of judges, not least because he’s a Class 1 police driver, and currently works as a collision investigator.
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Iain Geddes
Iain is in charge of practicality testing. He’s the man who examines every handbook in the minutest detail, loads each boot with holiday luggage, checks the location of the spare wheel, and makes 101 other checks to be sure each car is designed and built with caravanning in mind.